11/10/2010

New Schools Chancellor with no experience

﻿Mayor Bloomberg named a top publishing executive with no background in education to head the NYC school system. Eyewitness News wants to know what you think. Are you happy with Bloomberg's selection of Cathie Black? Send us your thoughts (by clicking below) and your comments could appear on Eyewitness News.

Comments

Again Mayor Bloomberg fails us.... he is all about money and power...my daughter passed an ELA test with a 3 and she can't count...all because the tests were skewed for his re-election year...nice...I know my daughter should have failed miserably...Mayor Bloomberg doesn't care about education, what were we thinking?? Sad. Some people think the world only revolves around how fat their pockets are...so so sad now a chancellor who is a businesswoman but not an educator...how dumb does he think NY"RS are..I certainly didn't vote for him!

I find Mayor Bloomberg's appointment of Ms. Black as the new School Chancellor indicative of his lack of knowledge of the field of education. What amazes me about this decision is the lack of respect for the field of education displayed by a supposedly intelligent mayor. As a professional educator I would never expect to succeed in the role of a professional lawyer, businesswoman, beautician, etc. as I am not trained in any of those fields.
I was employed as an educator for forty years, and have always been amazed by the ignorance of people who are not educated teachers yet think that they could come into our classrooms and do the job of a trained professional.
Mayor Bloomberg should have learned through Mr. Klien's tenure as Chancellor that a businessman was not the answer to the city school system's needs.
I do think that an individual with a strong business background would be invaluable as an aide, possibly a board member, to assist the Chancellor, but business knowledge alone is not sufficient for a School Chancellor.
I believe that this appointment displays a total lack of respect and understanding of the field of education. Mr. Bloomberg would do himself a favor if he relied on a Professional Educator to help him improve the city school system.

Mayor Bloomberg consistently appoints non-educators to run the school system because he just uses them as figure heads. He is really the one who is in control of the school system and everything else, even though he has no education experience either. As a former educator myself, I know what it is like to work in the field of education, both with and without experience. I can honestly say it is extremely difficult to be effective in such a challenging field without experience. New York City has the largest and most complicated school system in the nation that has many problems. A challenge of this magnitude needs a chancellor that has a balance of both classroom experience, as well as, managerial expertise. In order to implement effective changes in education, the chancellor needs to have a comprehensive understanding, through experience, of the many challenges a teacher faces every day. This level of understanding can NEVER be achieved by reading about education or spending a few days touring schools and talking to people.

The mayor and the current chancellor, who also has no education experience like to boast about the increases in test scores as well as the graduation rate. However, as I a mentioned, I am a former teacher who participated in scoring the city's standardized tests. I must say that the testing system is a farce! The answers that we were told that we had to accept as correct were ridiculous. These were answers I would never accept from my students in class because they were incorrect. So students who shouldn't pass the exams are passing them and being promoted. This leads to a false sense of confidence in their abilities and they just keep getting passed on. So if they kids think they are doing well, they will stay in school and get a diploma. However, so many of those kids who are graduating are really under-educated and incapable of performing in college and in many fields of work.

It is easy to understand this appointment. She will rubber stamp everything that the mayor wants such as closing schools, smaller schools, charter schools, etc. I have been teaching high school in the Bronx for over 13 years and the quality of education has declined as a result of his policies. How does closing a school improve a childs education ? Every teacher is just waiting for the day that the mayor, his policies, and his chancellor will no longer be with us. How many days to the next election ?

I think that the mayor should appoint someone with excellent managerial skills. The chancellor is not expected to teach students. One of the biggest problems with large educational systems in this country is that they are not managed properly, and therefore funds are wasted. I think that she will provide a fresh perspective about what students really need in order to succeed in life.

Having been in business and education, I agree with the Mayor. Managing this huge education department and educating young people who can read and write properly is of the utmost importance. Let's look at management and how to get things done. Thanks to Klein, and kudos to the Mayor.

I find it hard to believe that Mayor Bloomberg cannot find someone with the educational qualifications to head NYC's school system. What does a magazine editor know about running one of the worlds largest school systems?

I hope Ms. Black is a wonderful Chancellor. However, I believe she has less education than all NYC teachers are required to have. (a Master's Degree) It is interesting that the mayor has increased stringent requirements for teachers, yet continues to ask for exemptions for the people he hires as Chancellor. Although Mr. Bloomberg has been wonderful in many areas, I believe hubris may be clouding his judgment in this instance. We owe children a person who has dedicated their life to education.

Once again the Mayor has appointed someone not in the field, with limited expertise. Examples being Nicholas Scoppetta, JD for the previous Fire Commissioner, Judge Joe Bruno for the current Office of Emergency Management Commissioner, and now Ms Black as School Superintendent following Chancellor Kline. Is his underlying message to those in these fields by appointing someone with no educational foundation in these professions and someone who has never been a practitioner in these areas that they are "competent" to be their commissioner or chancellor. But anyone trained in this profession and who has worked in this profession is not competent? That anyone can do their job, like "Brownie" could do as FEMA director.
At least he appointed a new Fire Commissioner, Salvatore J. Cassano, who has both the training and life experience. Why could he not have demonstrated the same standard for the new Chancellor?

How can someone who has no background in education be in charge of a school system of over one million students? Teaching is not a business; it is an art, and a science. Why hasn't the mayor appointed someone who KNOWS the workings of the system?? Why are master teachers not considered for the position?

As a retired NYC elem.sch.teacher of 34 years, I find it a disgrace,that the mayor of the greatest city in the world, cannot find a suitable educational leader for our public school system, with an academic background, and experience, in the field of education. This is but one indicator of how little understanding and respect, Mr. Bloomberg has, for educators, children and their families, and the educational system as a whole. As long as schools are treated as "big business," we will continue to fail our most valuable resource, our children.

This is insane. I don't know why Mayor Bloomberg thinks education is a simple, business matter. Meanwhile, he and Chancellor Klein never once came to the schools in the Bronx that are not showpieces, the schools that have only a handful of laptops that work, no smartboards, no lab time, broken Xerox machines and inappropriate text books.

Add to that, students who can say "F you." to a teacher without repercussion from administrations and teenagers with a second grade reading ability who are not given any meaningful help outside of the classroom.

If social promotion has been slowed (It certainly never stopped, despite the assertions), unless students who are operating on low levels of literacy have special programs to help them catch up from wherever their skills are at the moment, there will be very little hope for them to lead productive lives in area that requires reading. Our adult education programs are woefully underfunded, so if it doesn't happen in middle school and high school, when is it likely to happen? Our eduational system is obviously not working.

There are many more dedicated teachers than the Dept. of Education would like to let on. But teachers are not magicians. They need help and trainng to deal with new educational models, and working with students with a plethora of learning disabilities and serious behavior issues. Teachers also need resources.

There are so many issues that have been buried under the Bloomberg/Klein administration. It was definately time for a change. I have seen recent news coverage with parents from good neighborhoods with good schools praising Klein, and I have been in public meetings with literally thousands of parents booing him.

I am not prejudging Ms. Black, Our mayor has sent a clear message that he wants to privatize the public school system. I believe there is a hidden agenda to saturate the school system with power executives who will be concerned about big business influence on education i.e. Charter Schools rather than dealing with the massive problems that exist in public schools such as low math and reading scores, violence and verbal abuse against students and teachers and uninvolved parents who are not supervising their children at home. I have many questions for Ms. Black and would like to know what is her action plan to deal with these daunting issues.

I disagree with the mayor's choice! Can't he see from the results we got with Klein that putting someone in that position with NO EXPERIENCE in education does not work! New York students only had about a 50% passing rate with the state tests so please explain to me what good Klein did for our kids? Now he wants to appoint someone who didn't enroll HER OWN kids in one of our schools, instead she chose to send her kids to school in CONNECTICUT...not even in this state!!!

How can you advocate for our schools when you don't even have a child in the system??????

This is juat another example of how the New York City school system continues to fail our kids. How can a person with no knowledge of our system run it to the best of their ability with out experiencing it for his or her self? There is a reason why job applications have an experience portion!